With a focus on community engagement, equity experts and local environmentalists highlight the depths and intersection of systemic discrimination in digital inequality and environmentalism, heeding the call for change locally and abroad.
Access to technology and digital mediums remain at the forefront of racial injustice, with predominantly Black or Latinx communities facing the brunt of inequities in a digital age. Through community-based efforts, organizations like the Digital Equity Research Center (DERC) and similar projects work to shift the digital gap and emphasize the detrimental effects of systemic racism beyond technological access.
“Technology is part of a larger sort of progress narrative about how we create change in the world. As long as we can remind people that this is really about broader social inequalities and systemic problems in our society, that’s really what we need to focus on in order to get involved and make a difference on this issue,” says Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, founder and director of the Digital Equity Research Center.
DERC thrives off community-based and participatory research to conquer racial, social and economic injustices and advance digital inclusion in the Metropolitan New York Region and worldwide. By partnering with many organizations, individuals and communities, the center has informed digital equity practice and policy at each government level, using an asset-based approach to ally research with directly impacted populations.
Rhinesmith, who founded the institution in 2021, pleads to equity advocates to adopt a similar research method and employ that knowledge and expertise in their work.
“Oftentimes, policymakers and people who make the decisions about the impacts of technology access and digital equity don’t often understand what that means and what those barriers really look like,” Rhinesmith says. “The more that we can allow communities to lead and solve it with their own solutions to the digital divide, the better we’re also going to be in solving this problem.”
In the wake of COVID-19, connectivity and telecommunications became a priority for students, educators, and an increasing population of remote workers. With an unprecedented spike of 466 million people using the internet in 2020, according to Brookings, it became apparent that the world was moving to a technology progressive, arguably dependent, regime.
As the pandemic shone a light on the digital divide, mostly impacting low-income neighborhoods and minorities, it became a more prevalent issue than ever before.
Legislative efforts and continued awareness, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), which allocates a historic $65 billion to broadband projects, have been implemented to bridge the gap nationwide; but the fact remains that 2.6 billion people – a third of the world – don’t have access to the internet, and 53% lack high-speed broadband, according to EDISON Alliance.
Rhinesmith cites poverty and racism as the root causes for the digital divide, noting that the high cost of the internet and realities of low-income neighborhoods add a deeper perspective to the conversation.
“What we know from digital discrimination is when you layer on digital technologies on top of historical and systemic discrimination, then we can see digital discrimination as understanding, essentially, that the same communities that are impacted by redlining and housing inequality, other types of inequalities, are the same communities that are impacted by a lack of access to technology,” he explains.
In order to tackle the issue of digital inequity, Rhinesmith says, people need to recognize the concurrent systemic challenges that hinders certain communities from growth.
“Let’s emphasize the equity part of digital equity in order to create the real, lasting change that we’re looking for. I think that those groups who are focused on equity and not digital equity, are the ones that are going to solve the problem of digital inequity and digital inequality.”
Where Digital Equity Meets Environmental Injustice
A common understanding amongst the DERC and advocacy groups is that the reality of a tech-advanced world means people’s livelihood is contingent on digital usage, especially in a time where social media has the means to evoke change.
One way that digital media has played an influential role in changemaking is through environmental justice, with organizations such as Young, Gifted and Green heeding the call for reform in marginalized communities.
According to Latricea Adams, founder and president of Young, Gifted and Green, social media has been pivotal in the organization’s success and ability to educate the general public on “top line policy items” that impact local regions. The nonprofit is notorious for utilizing social platforms to spread awareness, amplify environmental initiatives, and advocate for better quality of life in various regions, including the nation’s capital.
“Digital media is multifaceted, right? It’s [used] to make sure that information that’s especially reaching vulnerable communities is accurate and that it is timely and is where people can understand how to keep themselves safe,” Adams says. “The best words to use is from an emergency preparedness perspective, [digital media] is another outlet and…is critical.”
Based in Washington, D.C., Young, Gifted and Green uses a state–model, hyperlocal focus that prioritizes political change through policy advocacy, training and mentorship.
The organization’s social presence has allowed them to effectively lobby, educate, and drive legislative efforts, including the D.C. Childhood Lead Exposure Prevention Amendment Act of 2017, a culmination of pressure from social media and other social justice organizations to protect children from lead exposure, a historically prominent topic in the area.
In addition to lead contamination, Young, Gifted and Green works to tackle other regional flaws such as weather preparedness, climate change, and water quality. The operation implements hybrid and virtual tools like digital newsletters and the Green Agenda, the latter established during the pandemic, as a means to raise environmental awareness.
As a former educator with a background in K-12, Adams says it’s pertinent that environmental information is “digestible” to limit the spread of misinformation. She considers the fight for environmental justice and digital equity to be simultaneous, recognizing that oftentimes it’s not just a lack of access that burdens vulnerable communities, but an abundance of falsification.
“It’s almost like we’re building the plane and flying it at the same time,” she says. “While we do want to use this as a mechanism to inform, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that we do have dark forces that really are trying to counter these great initiatives that are trying to use digital media for good. We have to be vigilant to make sure that we protect our community from that misinformation that can cause more harm.”
Digital literacy aside, minority-populated communities are oftentimes the destination site of many environmental issues, including chemical plants and landfills.
Because of this, since its inception, Adams has expanded the group’s mission to ensure Black, Indigenous and People Of Color (BIPOC) have representation on a wider scale, training young leaders to combat lead contamination in Washington, D.C., Flint, Michigan, Baltimore, Maryland, and her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
She encourages Black residents to become more involved in their local politics and initiatives and utilize social platforms for support, such as Young, Gifted and Green’s mission of increasing access to DC Water’s Lead Service Inventory Map, which detects nearby lead service lines.
“We do a lot of work on making sure that we build [the] capacity of community members, so that they can have a voice in the decisions, not just of getting laws passed, but also having a say in how those laws are implemented,” Adams explains. “In addition to the work around leadership development, we also essentially want to build the next generation of environmental justice activists.”
Nonetheless, Adams believes that there is hope in a technology progressive world, including benefits that pertain to the Black community. While the fight to a more just and fair society ensues, environmentalists and equity leaders alike remain committed to fighting inequity on all fronts, multiple battles at a time.
“Even with the good and the bad, when we think about digital media, it has saved lives, whether it be from environmental justice to police brutality,” Adams says. “We have seen a revolution occurring right at our fingertips, right in our palms with our devices. So I think that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. I definitely think that there is still opportunity to grow in this space.”